As we discussed earlier, Pittsburgh Penguins center Jordan Staal left tonight’s 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers thanks to a knee-to-knee hit by Mike Rupp. Rupp received a two-minute kneeing penalty for that interchange.

Was it a dirty play or just a regrettable accident? You be the judge:

There hasn’t been an update regarding Staal’s status yet, but it would be surprising if he plays for Pittsburgh on Saturday.

There is no doubt it was a knee on knee collision, but Rupp was simply skating with a wide stance when he tried to hit Staal. He didn’t stick out his knee, or make a sudden jerk into Staal to cause a knee on knee hit.

Seem like it was just bad luck.

tikkanen10 - Jan 6, 2012 at 11:52 PM

from that angle, it doesn’t look like Rupp purposely went for the knee, and this was an unfortunate accident. I wouldn’t think Rupp would purposely try to injure his teammate Mark Staal’s brother.

Okay….Coach Tortorella blasted the Penguins for the knee to knee hit on one of his players….Not very professional of him. Let’s take a look at the above knee to knee hit on Jordan Staal by Mike Rupp……Wait! did he lecture Mike Rupp about how shameful it was??? Did the Penguin coach blast his team???? The answer to both is NO!!!!!